


I Could Paint You By Numbers, and Color You In

by YinAndYangOnIce



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, based off of something dumb, everyone is idiots, universty AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 09:19:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1813261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YinAndYangOnIce/pseuds/YinAndYangOnIce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based off this thing i wrote, basically Niall has a secret admirer and everyone is an idiot</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Could Paint You By Numbers, and Color You In

“So… it’s a goat?” Zayn asked, leaning down so that he was eye-level with the whiteboard. Niall scowled, recapping the marker in his hand and tapping Zayn with his hip so he could look at the picture as well.

“No! It’s a cat! What part of it made you think it was a goat?” he asked. Sure, it wasn’t good, but it looked like a cat to him.

“I’m not sure,” Zayn said, squinting at the picture. “I think the beard?”  
 “What? That’s not a beard, it’s his little tag! Like the one that pets have to tell people where they live!” Niall pouted, opening his door to toss the markers back onto his bed before closing the door and locking it.   
 “Why would a goat need a tag?” Zayn asked as they started walking down the hall of their dorm to the doors that led to the stairs.

“It’s not a goat!” Niall snapped, punching Zayn playfully in the shoulder but smirking anyway.

The whiteboard on Niall and Louis’s door had been there since the beginning of the year and had been subjected to many an expression of “creativity” upon its surface. At the beginning, Louis had used it, mostly just for drawing dicks and rude words, just to stir up trouble, but their RA, Ed, thought it was funny, so he just drew them for fun a lot of the time until he got bored of it and stopped. Some other people drew on it, the girls from the floor above them that he’d come to be friends with sometimes drew flowers and hearts and depictions of a fiery dystopia run by a badass, female, warrior queen, and Harry, Zayn’s roommate, wrote inspirational, or, at least, what he thought was inspirational, quotes on the board, just after tweeting them. But Niall really was the one who got the most use out of it.

He drew on it maybe once a week, changing the image when he got bored of looking at it when he came back to the dorm or it became too smudged and parts of it were erased. He wasn’t a great artist, he was the first to admit it, but that didn’t stop him from trying to draw funny animals with funnier sayings in word bubbles, if for no other reason than to make onlookers laugh.

He got a few compliments for his picture of a rat in a mankini saying “Wa-wa-wee-wah” like Borat, though he did have to explain it to a few people (“Bo-RAT, get it?”) and when he’d drawn a piano with a misshapen finger pressing down on the D key, with the caption “He wants the D” written above it, then below, “(No, seriously, my guitar string broke, anyone have a spare?)”

Not many people paid a lot of mind to his pictures. Most of the time someone told him it was funny or at least asked if it was a new one, but the only person who consistently, without fail, made sure to tell him that he liked his new drawing was Zayn. 

He and Louis had met Zayn at the beginning of the year and they’d hit it off pretty quickly, particularly Harry and Louis, who were dating before the first semester was over and ended up sharing a room about as often as they did with their actual roommates. It was lucky that Niall and Zayn got on really well, because at least he always knew there was somewhere he could go whenever Louis sexiled him, and vice versa. 

And it wasn’t like he specifically drew things on the whiteboard just to hear Zayn say something nice about them. It was incentive, but it wasn’t the whole reason. Sometimes the world just needed more drawings of pole dancing dinosaurs.

~ ~ ~ 

The only reason Niall noticed anything different about his door was because he’d just finished a new drawing when he’d left for class; an image of Obama throwing up West side that he was particularly proud of (Zayn said his hands looked more like claws, but whatever), and was quite upset to see had vanished by the time he’d gotten back.

He only had a few seconds to be sad about it, though, because whoever had erased his picture had replaced it with something else. A cartoon, to be precise, of a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, strumming a guitar with a speech bubble floating above his head, filled with musical notes. The cartoon was sitting on a grassy hill under a tree and had the widest grin on his face. 

He could’ve deduced who was pictured there on his own, but just in case, the word “NIALL” was written underneath the doodle in blue bubble letters, and underneath it, “Our Little Songbird.”

It was really cute, but more than that, it was well done, every stroke of the marker seemed to have been calculated perfectly. There were no stray marks or smudges, like the ones that appeared whenever Niall drew on his board. He’d always found it a lot more difficult to draw on the board, with it held up vertically and his movements were always awkward, but that didn’t seem to be the case for whoever drew on the board. 

Niall let his eyes trail over the drawing, searching for any sign of a name or signature but found none. When he’d looked his fill (and taken a picture on his phone, because it was really a nice picture and those never really lasted long in a hallway full of college boys,) he pushed the door open and walked in, unsurprised to find Louis laying on his bed, with his laptop perched on his belly. He could almost think he was doing homework if he didn’t know him better and didn’t hear the sound of Games of Thrones coming through the tinny speakers.

“Hey, Lou,” he said, dropping his bag on the floor near his desk.

“Shut up, I’m looking at Jon Stark,” Louis replied.

“Do you know who drew that picture on our whiteboard?” Niall asked, ignoring the glare Louis shot him when he paused the episode halfway through his question so he could either hear Niall better or wait for Niall to stop talking so he could go back to his show. Most likely the latter. 

The only reason Niall asked is because Louis was an even worse artist than him, his only area of triumph in that field was the same triumph he held in his romantic life, which was penises. 

“No, it was already there when I got back,” Louis said, tapping his fingers half-thoughtfully, half-impatiently on the lid of his laptop. “It’s nice, though, innit? Reckon someone fancies you.”

Niall hadn’t really thought about that, and now that he was thinking about it, he severely doubted it.

“Nah,” he said. “Probably just someone’s nice way of telling me to close my window if I insist on singing after midnight.” But Louis wasn’t paying attention, he’d already gone back to his show, pointedly turning the volume up until Niall got the message (he was a great lad, honestly, just became really, really grumpy when someone interrupted his Game of Thrones time.)

~ ~ ~

“S’true, isn’t it?” Zayn asked when he showed up at Niall’s door, as he always did, so they could walk to class together. 

(When he’d seen the picture for the first time, when he’d come round to ask Niall if he wanted to grab dinner, he looked puzzled and asked Niall if he’d drawn it.

“No, of course not,” Niall said, rolling his eyes. “I can’t draw nearly that well and besides, would be a bit arrogant of me if I did, wouldn’t it?”

Zayn had smirked and shrugged before walking with him down the hall.)

Niall turned to Zayn, eyebrows raised in question.

“Well, you are like our songbird, right?” he replied. “You’re always singing and since I’ve met you, I can count the times you’ve been without your guitar on one hand.” He nodded to the guitar in question, which was strapped across Niall’s back, as if to prove his point.

“I feel naked without her,” Niall said, pouting and reaching back to pat the guitar case soundly, relishing in the soft, hollow sound it returned.

“Now I’ve got this image of you walking around completely nude ‘cept for your guitar and having no idea why everyone is so distressed to see you,” Zayn said, smirking hugely and Niall snorted.

“Stop picturing me naked, Malik. It’s unfair to yourself,” he said playfully and Zayn let out a single, high chirp of a laugh.

“But how else am I supposed to get my fix?” he teased right back, smiling to himself when Niall started to turn pink and he knew the conversation was more or less over.

~ ~ ~

Niall decided to keep the drawing up on his whiteboard, he felt horrible at just the thought of erasing something so nice, especially considering it was someone else’s hard work and the only thing that would be replacing it would be his own mediocre doodles.

There seemed to be an unspoken rule that the rest of his floor had sort of understood without needing to be told, which was that this one particular sketch wasn’t to be tampered with or vandalized. It didn’t happen often that the other guys he lived with would take the time out of their day specifically to draw boobs on his drawing or write foul words over his own messages, but it was known to happen and usually he didn’t mind, actually got a laugh out of it, because more or less, that was what the whiteboard had been bought for; just shits and giggles. 

But for the first few days after the little drawing had appeared on his board, Niall would heave a sigh of relief every time he came home from class to find the picture unharmed, and after a week or so of its presence on his door, he was fairly sure that no one was going to touch it. 

He didn’t really believe that the drawing was someone’s kind way of telling him to shut up, but he didn’t think it was someone flirting with him either. He didn’t know what it was, but whatever the reason it had been put there, he was probably excessively touched by it. He liked knowing that someone had noticed him playing and singing and made a point to let him know they liked it. 

Which was why he was devastated when he got back from class that Friday to find the drawing gone. He felt the back of his eyes start to pinch, ridiculously, because it was just a doodle on a whiteboard when he noticed there was something else left in its wake. As he got closer, he immediately recognized the bubble letters from the first drawing.

“ANNA, WHERE’S MY SUPER SUIT?!” 

Underneath the words was a drawing of Elsa, braid and dress and all, but her eyes covered by the thing, white glasses like Frozone wore in The Incredibles. Her face was twisted into a frown and Niall’s own into a wide, goofy grin.

It was no mystery that he loved Frozen, any Disney movie was enough to tickle his fancy, if he was honest, but this one in particular was close to his heart, horribly obvious to everyone around him considering he went around knocking on his friends’ doors, inquiring “Do you want to build a snowman?” as well as his masterful renditions of “Let It Go” that he treated everyone to whenever he took a shower for a whole three weeks after he saw the movie.

Whoever drew this knew just how to make him smile.

Once again, Louis knew nothing about the picture on their door, but this time, he seemed almost as curious about it as Niall was, smiling when he brought it up.

“Whoever it was must know you rather well,” he said. “But then again, you are singing that song literally wherever you go, so maybe not.”

Niall just nodded thoughtfully, not too concerned with the creator of the cute little pictures left anonymously on his whiteboard; at least, not as concerned as he was about his Astronomy paper, which was due on Monday.

~ ~ ~

Niall got a lot of compliments on that drawing, more compliments than he ever got on his own drawings (though he couldn’t find it in himself to be bitter about it,) and when they all asked who drew it (okay, maybe he was a little bitter about them assuming (correctly) that he wasn’t the one who drew those pictures, but whatever, trifles,) he told them he wasn’t sure.

“Maybe it’s Ed,” Zayn suggested. “He’s not bad at drawing. He designed a lot of his and Harry’s tattoos.”

“Not me, mate,” they turned around just in time to find Ed’s wild red hair poking out of the room two doors down from Niall. He had chopsticks in one hand and a takeout box in the other, and was slurping lo mein into his mouth. “Funny, though. Wish I’d thought of it.”

“Did you get me a fortune cookie?” Niall asked and Ed rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but I already opened it. It said ‘You will swallow eight dicks before the week is out’.”

“It’s like they know I’m going to open it,” Niall deadpanned. “Cheers, mate.”

Ed nodded before ducking back into his room to Zayn’s laughter. 

~ ~ ~ 

The last two pictures had both shown up on Fridays, so Niall wasn’t shocked when the next drawing appeared the following Friday, though he was excited about it. 

From what Niall could tell, it was a doodle of a dog with a jet pack, flying through space.

“Cute things I hear you say” was written in blue and underlined on the top of the board, and underneath it, in green, “What if you gave a dog a jet pack?”

So that was… something. 

Now, Niall wasn’t totally unknown to partake in a little bit of weed with Zayn and them when he didn’t have an exam the next day or was really stressed out, and he definitely wasn’t unknown to partake in a little bit (or a lot) of alcohol every now and again, and Niall was one of those guys who would say a lot of shit while inebriated but wouldn’t remember it until the next day when someone smirkingly brought it up to him. But Niall actually remembered having said this, and what might be the worst part of it was that he’d said it stone cold sober. 

But apparently that didn’t matter to whoever had become his personal door decorator over the past few weeks, but not only did this kid not think the stupid shit that came out of his mouth was stupid at all, they apparently went so far as to think it was actually cute. 

As he stepped into his room, he was immediately met with Louis’s shit-eating smirk and eyes sparkling the way they only ever do when Niall had done something stupid and he could give him shit about it.

“‘What if you gave a dog a jet pack?’” he asked, tone mocking and Niall groaned.

“Hey, it’s a perfectly valid question with an answer that I’m sure would be important. For science,” Niall said defensively, tossing his bag onto his bed and then promptly following it, wincing at the harsh shriek of the springs as he landed. “And besides, someone out there thinks that it’s a cute question. Or thing to say. Or whatever. I’m cute. You’re gross.”

“I’d have to disagree,” a voice replied and Niall turned to find Harry opening the door and walking in, two cans of soda in his hands, one of which he handed to Louis in exchange for a peck on the cheek. “About the ‘Louis being gross’ thing, not the ‘Niall’s cute’ thing. You’re cute. Like a baby duckling.”

“Thanks, Haz,” Niall said, reaching forward and snatching the can out of Louis’s hands while he was still laying kisses all over Harry’s face. He cracked it open with a smug smile on his face, then immediately felt bad when Harry offered his boyfriend his own can when he saw his affronted face. Niall ended up returning the can to Harry and stomping away moodily to go buy his own (maybe a little dramatic, but Louis and Harry were grossly adorable and he was mad about it, damn it.)   
“Niall!” he heard someone call his name and he glanced down the hallway to find Zayn grinning at him and waving. He smiled, waving back.

“Hey, mate,” he replied, returning the fist bump that Zayn offered him. 

“Hey, I was about to go grab some dinner,” he said. “Wanted to see if you wanted to come with.” 

Niall immediately nodded, deciding that by the time he went and got a soda and came back, Harry and Louis will have tucked themselves deep into make-out mode and it would be unpleasant for all involved. Except for, you know, Harry and Louis. Basically everyone except Niall. And besides, he was always hungry and was never going to say “no” to hanging out with Zayn.

“Sure, bro, sounds great, let me just grab my wallet,” he said, waving the single dollar he’d taken along for the soda. He turned back and opened his door, unsurprised but still rather unimpressed when the first thing he saw upon entering was Louis’s back and Harry’s large hands gripping his arse. “Guys, I was literally gone for thirty seconds,” he snarked, putting a defensive hand up to prevent any unmentionable behavior from leaking into his peripheral vision. Not that it wasn’t something he hadn’t seen (or heard) before. Mostly just for show.

“Yeah, and it takes about nineteen seconds to get this one all riled up,” Louis quipped back, tilting his head in the direction of his boyfriend, who was spread out underneath him.

“Heyyyy,” Harry’s voice rose up, though it was a little low and husky and ugh, gross.

“I’m going to go eat with Zayn, assuming I still have an appetite after this encounter,” Niall said, walking back towards his door, wishing he could be surprised when all Louis did in response was wiggle his eyebrows at Niall before diving back to start kissing Harry’s neck again.

As he opened the door, Harry must’ve caught a sliver of his own roommate waiting outside, because he called out, “Hey, Zayn! Grabbed some milk while you were at class!”

Zayn smirked, waving. “Cheers, mate, thanks for that. Have fun.”

“Will do! See ya later!” he said, just as the door closed and, with help from Louis, so did his mouth.

Niall scoffed. “Your roommate.”

“My roommate? Your roommate! He’s only like that because of him,” Zayn smirked, bumping his shoulder against Niall’s playfully. “Oh, and by the way, it would fly.”

“Pardon?” Niall asked, looking up from checking to make sure his ID was still in his wallet (thankfully, it was, otherwise that would’ve been the third that he lost this semester.)

“What would happen if you gave a dog a jet pack,” Zayn said, eyes darting to the whiteboard on Niall’s door and then back. “I imagine it would fly.”

Niall sighed heavily but couldn’t help the smile at Zayn’s lame joke. “At least someone’s interested in my scientific inquiry.” Zayn snorted and nudged him in the direction of the door.

~ ~ ~

“So no signature or anything, huh?” Zayn asked, expertly bringing the rice up to his lips with his chopsticks while Niall failed to pick up a rather large piece of chicken.  
 “Nope, just the picture,” he grumbled, giving up and spearing the chicken with one of the sticks rather savagely and bringing it up to his mouth, only for it to bump his lips and fall back onto his plate. Zayn laughed while Niall stared hopelessly at it for a few seconds before pushing that plate aside and moving onto the hamburger he’d gotten when he knew the Chinese would cause him too much stress. 

“And no one’s said anything?” Zayn asked, nicking a fry from Niall’s plate and popping it into his mouth. Niall wondered if he understood the severity of the wallop he would’ve given him had he been anyone else. He was lucky he was special. 

“Nope,” he responded. “We keep the markers outside the door too, so it could be literally anyone.”

“So this is, like, a proper ‘secret admirer’ thing, huh?” Zayn asked, grinning at Niall, who rolled his eyes.

“Ugh, not you too,” he said. “Someone is drawing cute things on my whiteboard. I really doubt whoever it is is courting me.”

“Why do you think that?” Zayn asked. 

“I don’t know, like. It’s probably just someone being friendly,” he said, though he was sure that his voice sounded about as confident in that notion as he felt, which was not very much at all. Zayn’s face told him that he about mirrored that sentiment. 

“Niall, the board today was gushing about cute - stupid, but still cute - things you say,” he said flatly. “That’s definitely courting. Or, as we call it in the twenty-first century, flirting.”

“I wouldn’t call it gushing,” Niall said lamely, but Zayn just rolled his eyes.

“Well, I certainly think it’s flirting. It’s a good technique, too. Wish I’d thought of it,” Zayn said, fishing another fry out of Niall’s admittedly hefty stack.

Me, too, Niall thought to himself, smiling when Zayn picked up the wayward piece of chicken before with his chopsticks and offered it up to Niall with a grin.

~ ~ ~

Niall had pretty much figured by then that the pattern for the pictures was every Friday, so he spent a good chunk of the week not thinking about the mystery artist at all. That was, until he woke up on Friday morning and realized that that day was the scheduled “doodle day.” 

Inexplicably, he was really excited to see what would show up on his board today. Okay, maybe not inexplicable. Ever since Zayn had insisted that the pictures were someone actually trying to flirt with him, he couldn’t see them as anything else. Which was probably stupid and exaggerated, but whatever. If there was even the slightest chance it might be someone trying to court him, then he looked forward to it. Not that he was desperate or anything. He’d only been crushing on one of his best friends since the beginning of the year with no obvious reciprocation, he felt due for a little affection. (It wasn’t Zayn’s fault, really. He was just a little oblivious, and besides, even if he was aware of Niall’s feelings, he couldn’t ask him to act on feelings he didn’t have.)

Whatever, the point is, he was excited enough about the prospect of a new picture showing up on his door that he rushed out of his room the second he was dressed to check to make sure nothing had been left there during the night. It hadn’t. 

Half of him wanted to stay back, lie in waiting behind the door for the slightest noise so he could jump out and catch the mystery person in the act, while the other half wanted to keep enjoying the anonymity. But all of him wanted to pass all of his classes for the semester, so he reluctantly slid his books into his bag and set off for the day. 

When he came back for the two-hour long break between his first two and last two classes of the day, he was a little disappointed to find the dog with the jet pack still flying high amongst the stars (though he was rather taken with the little guy and was sad to see him go. Eventually. Hopefully.)

By the time he got back from his last few classes and dinner, he was beginning to wonder if anything was going to show up at all. 

“Niall, stop pouting about the stupid whiteboard,” Louis said, tapping his foot against Niall’s back. He was lying on his side on his bed, back facing the room and, subsequently, Louis.

“It’s not stupid,” he said, then paused. “And I’m not pouting.”

“You are, and I’m sure another one will show up. So they missed one day in the pattern. That doesn’t mean they’re abandoning you,” he said. When Niall didn’t move or respond, he sighed. “Will you stop moping if I take you to McDonald’s for McFlurries? Harry and I were going to go.”

“I’m not moping,” Niall said, but he was already rolling over. “And yes.” He was pulling his shoes on when he asked, “Is Zayn coming?”

Louis smirked at him knowingly, which he pointedly looked away from. “No, sorry, Romeo. He has a paper due tomorrow that he has to do.”

Niall frowned. No new flirt-drawing and no Zayn. At least he was getting ice cream.

~ ~ ~

When he came back, Niall nearly choked on the mouthful of M&M’s he was enjoying when he noticed new colors streaked across the whiteboard on his door. He shoved his McFlurry into Louis’s hand, ignoring the grumpy oof he gave when he did so.

He shuffled towards the door and leaned down so he could better see the picture.

It was two little cartoon people, one of which was again supposed to be Niall, blonde hair, blue eyes, but he was dressed in a green tunic and hat, with a little fairy floating around him. He was supposed to be Link, from Legend of Zelda.

The other person was just an outline, no colors, no details, just the vague outline of a person, with the word “Me” written over where the person’s eyes would be. The outline of the person was holding his arms out and there was a speech bubble above his head.

“It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!”

In the little guy’s arms was a heart.

~ ~ ~

“So it’s flirting.”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Zayn replied, smirking to himself when he showed up at Niall’s door to retrieve the McFlurry Niall had promised he’d get him.

~ ~ ~

“So do you think it’s a guy?” Niall asked, eyes traveling over the clean letters and doodle for what must’ve been the hundredth time since they arrived. 

“Well, first of all, let it be put on the record that I am completely aware of the existence of girl gamers and power to them, honestly, but considering the majority of the people who play it are men, I’d say it’s more likely to have been a guy, yeah,” Harry said, glancing over Niall’s shoulder and squinting at the picture. “That, plus the fact that the writing isn't curly or dainty or anything. Though it is sort of loopy, in the o’s, you know, so I think-“

“God, you are absolutely incorrigible after you’ve watched Sherlock,” Louis griped, rolling his eyes. 

“Say what you will, you think my deductions are sexy,” Harry said, smirking at Louis, who scoffed.

“Harry, you put your jeans on backwards this morning, you literally could not deduce your way into your own pants,” he snarked, looking not at all apologetic for the snickering it yielded from their friends.

“Yeah, I was the one who had to wake him up so he could make it to English this morning, can confirm,” Liam said, knocking his shoulder against Harry’s. “And you know, Haz, if you lengthened your face a little, gave yourself Zayn’s cheekbones, you could be Benedict Pumpkin - ow!”

“You ever say something like that again, I’ll shoot you,” Louis snapped, grabbing both other boys by the arms and dragging them away, muttering under his breath.

Once they were gone and only Zayn and Niall remained in front of the board, Zayn said, “I’m pretty sure it’s a guy. For what it’s worth.”

“Someone on this floor?” Niall asked, and just as he did, one of the boys who lived two doors down from their room walked by, letting out an impressive belch that left quite an unpleasant odor behind.

Zayn wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, we’re just swimming in romantics ‘round here.” He turned to Niall, grinning before rounding his arm around the blonde lad and leading him away, down the hall after his friends.

Niall huffed, biting back the smile threatening to appear and trying to let the mystery of the whiteboard artist distract him from Zayn’s warmth against his side and how it left a warm tingle just below his ribs.

~ ~ ~

“What did Taylor Swift say when she went down the slide?”

“WHEEEEEEE!” Harry and Liam squealed in unison, cackling as they did and try as he might, Niall couldn’t quite hold back the smile as they chorused “are never, ever, everrr, getting back together!”

“See, it’s funny, because that’s what she says in the song,” Harry said, grinning at Louis, who was looking at him unimpressed, but seemed to be struggling to keep it up. 

Niall looked over the picture; a girl with wild, curly, yellow hair flying behind her as she slid down the slide, a speech bubble with the lyrics in question floating above her.

“Whoever is writing these must be stealing from your joke book, Hazza,” Louis said, opening the door and letting himself in, his boyfriend trailing behind him.

“Ugh, I wish,” Harry said. “That’s gold.”

The door closed behind them and it was just Niall and Liam on the other side now.

“Well, whoever it is, they’re really intent on making you smile,” Liam said, turning his gaze on Niall, smiling gently. His arms were crossed, biceps bulging out impressively, and yet his brown eyes were warm and inviting, like a hearth. If he wasn’t stupid over that girl from the fifth floor and Niall didn’t have a sort-of, kind-of, confusing something for Zayn and an even more confusing something (fondness, maybe?) in the general direction of whoever was drawing stuff on his board every week, he’d probably be into Liam. But alas.

“Sophia went home for the weekend,” he said, drawing Niall’s focus back. “Wanna grab some take-out and binge-watch Grey’s Anatomy?”

Niall so wished he was into Liam.

~ ~ ~

“So the brown-haired one’s Grey?” Zayn asked, reaching over Niall’s shoulder for popcorn and resting his chin on the Irish lad’s head from his spot lying on his stomach on Liam’s bed. Louis and Harry had decided to commandeer room 211 for the evening, leaving Zayn technically homeless and resigning himself to finally watch Grey’s Anatomy with Niall and Liam.

“Yes, technically,” Liam said.  
 “But she’s not the Grey,” Niall clarified. “Not the one whose anatomy we’re watching, anyway.”

“What?” Zayn asked. “Then who is she?”

“They’re half-sisters, now shut up, I’m looking at McDreamy’s hair,” Niall snapped, though he lifted his arm up to pat Zayn on the head to show he didn’t mean it.

“Look, mate, I’m not gay…” Liam started and Zayn and Niall both groaned. 

“Here we go,” Zayn sighed.

“But I’d date that man’s hair,” he finished, munching on some more popcorn.

“Liam, why do you always have to preface things with ‘I’m not gay’?” Zayn asked and Liam flushed under the low light from the TV screen. “We know you’re not, mate.Your habit of frequently sticking your extremities into vaginas makes that abundantly clear.”

“Cheers on that, by the way, mate, don’t know how you do it,” Niall said, sipping from his can of Coke and returning the smirk Zayn sent him.

“I don’t always do it,” Liam grumbled. “Only one other time, and you have to admit, that was the funniest tweet I’ve probably ever tweeted.”

“Or will tweet. You’ve peaked too soon, mate,” Zayn said, slapping Liam on the shoulder. “And besides, you said that about me, like, two weeks ago.” He paused before speaking again, this time with a deep imitation (or at least, attempt) at Liam’s Wolverhampton accent. “‘Mate, now I’m not gay, but I think your eyelashes are, like, breathtaking.”

“I was drunk, you twat,” Liam moaned, running a hand over his burning face.

“And who can blame him, Z, they are very nice eyelashes,” Niall piped up. Zayn leaned forward so he was in Niall’s field of vision, subsequently putting his face right up into Niall’s neck, his warm breath ghosting over it. Niall would be a little more nervous about it if Zayn weren’t pouting like a child.

“Oh, really? Not sure you like McHottie’s more than mine?” he drawled. 

“It’s ‘McDreamy’, and no, your eyelashes win everything,” Niall wished briefly that the Coke in his hand would turn into a Bud so he had at least that to blame for his motormouth. 

“And my hair?” Zayn asked, letting his chin fall back again, this time on Niall’s shoulder. The younger lad didn’t answer for a moment and Zayn gasped exaggeratedly. “Niall.”

“Yours is definitely my second favorite hair, I promise!” Niall said, reaching over his shoulder to tussle said hair.

“Hmph,” Zayn grunted. “Liar. So who’s this Karev guy?”

~ ~ ~

“This one is actually, legitimately funny,” Louis said, smiling.  
 Niall chuckled, nodding down at the board’s new message.

“What do you get when you cross Grey’s Anatomy with Victoria’s Secret?

“50 SHADES OF GREY!”

“I’m finally, genuinely impressed,” Louis smirked, crossing his arms and waiting until Niall had taken his customary picture of the board before opening the door. “Barring the standard, visual test and best friend lecture, I have to say, I approve.”

Niall nodded, though his mind wasn’t exactly on the no doubt grueling obstacles whoever was unlucky enough to decide they wanted to court him would have to avoid concerning Louis. Instead, he was more focused on something that had started tugging at the back of his mind; a hunch.

~ ~ ~

“Do you think it’s Zayn?” 

Louis looked up from his textbook, though it was obvious he wasn’t really committing himself fully to reading it, he’d been highlighting every word on the page for the last three pages, his eyebrows raised slightly as a grin stretched over his lips.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he said, looking back down at the book and returning to his excessive highlighting.

“No comment,” Niall murmured. “But do you think it’s him? I mean, could it be? It could, couldn’t it?”

“Niall, you’re obsessing,” Louis said, doodling a neon yellow phallus over a picture of the correct CPR procedure. How this boy was supposed to become a schoolteacher, Niall would never know. 

“I am not,” he grumbled. “I’m just saying, he is an art student. Like, he can draw, right?”

“I assume so, otherwise he’ll have to turn to stripping,” Louis said absently, but stopped, looked up to stare wistfully at the wall. “Such a shame, a face like that was made to be doused in glitter.”

“Louis, please, you have a boyfriend,” Niall said.

“I know, and he agrees,” Louis said and this time, Niall’s eyebrows were the one raising.

“You and Haz have discussed Zayn’s potential for being a stripper?”

“Potential?” Louis snorted. “Please, the boy can’t dance worth his arse, which, unfortunately for you, isn’t that much.”

“Louis.“

“Tiny, that, like two plums,” Louis said, holding his hand out and cupping it as if to demonstrate. “But he is packing.”

“Louis- Wait, really?” Niall wished he felt the appropriate amount of ashamed for how much that peaked his interest. He wished even more that Louis hadn’t caught it. The boy’s eyes started sparkling with mischief as his smirk tripled in size.

“Ah, that got his attention, eh?” Louis teased, shutting his book with a soft thwap. “Yeah, I practically live with Harry, so I’ve seen the man change into his trackies a couple times. Oh, don’t look at me like that,” he rolled his eyes at Niall’s expression. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, Harry’s seen you change, too, and he said he wasn’t unimpressed, and if I wasn’t your best mate, I would agree.”

“How on Earth would that make me feel better?” Niall said, though he can’t say he’s particularly offended. “And please, honestly, I’m trying to be serious here. Do you think it could be Zayn? O-Or maybe someone else we know, but yeah. Zayn?”

Louis rolled his eyes but seemed to have resigned to being somewhat serious for the time being. “Honestly? I think it could be Zayn. Definitely could. My concern is, though, why would he flirt with you via whiteboard when the pair of you are already friends? It just seems unlikely for him to flirt with you all secret like when he could do it face-to-face.” Louis must’ve noticed the quick way Niall’s face fell because he balked, clearing his throat.

“But who knows, you know? Zayn is a shy guy. Maybe he wanted to test the waters first, put it out there for you to see, see what your reaction was. Isn’t that what artists are all about? Expressing themselves through art and stuff?”

“Right,” Niall said, not completely buying Louis’s attempt at looking at the bright side of things, but going along with it anyway. “And, like, he did watch Grey’s Anatomy with Li and me a few days ago, so.”

“Yeah, that is true,” Louis said, tapping the highlighter against his bottom lip, seeming to actually be ruminating over this. “Then again, it’s not that big of a secret that you’re into that show.”

“And he doesn’t seem to be the type for cheesy jokes, really. That’s more Haz’s cup of tea,” Niall said.

“Yeah, but Harry’s got an alibi,” he said, grinning mischievously. “My arse.”  
 “Christ,” Niall sighed under his breath. “You literally can’t carry a conversation without bringing that up, can you?”

“What, my arse or Harry?” 

“Yes,” Niall replied. “Usually in the same context.” Louis just shrugged, grinning to himself.

“Well, when both are as good as they are, it’s hard to keep it a secret,” he said, obviously relishing in Niall’s grimace. 

“Hey, please, painfully and obviously single best friend over here,” Niall said. “Please be respectful.”

“Make me,” Louis said, reopening his book and directing his eyesight, though not his attention, back on the words. “And honestly, Nialler, my suggestion would be to just tell Zayn how you feel-“

“I don’t-“

“Horan, please, don’t insult me,” Louis scoffed, highlighting purely the margins of the page. “If you tell him how you feel, if he is the mysterious whiteboard admirer-stalker person, then voila, mystery solved. If he’s not, there is a pretty good chance he’ll say yes anyway and whoever is the mystery whiteboard whatever will see that you have a boyfriend and regretfully go back into hiding. Either way, you end up with Mydnyght Mocha all up in your business.”

“God, please don’t tell me that’s-“

“His stripper name? Yes, you’re correct,” Louis said. “With ‘y’’s, not ‘i’’s. Makes it sexier. Yours is White Irish Cream.” 

There was a pause where both boys just stared at each other. 

“In case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”

~ ~ ~

The faint notion that he had about the mysterious whiteboard person and Zayn remained in the back of his head, wiggling at him whenever he saw Zayn and he would smile at him or brush their shoulders against each other when they sat next to each other or when he’d plop himself down on the bed next to Niall when they were hanging out in his room and there were dozens of other places he could sit but would sit by him anyway. He just couldn’t help but wonder. It wasn’t like Zayn had an alibi for whenever the pictures showed up, but then again, neither did a lot of people. He just couldn’t be sure.

Of course, he was somewhat aware that the hunch that he had about it could be based purely on his hope that the two people were one and the same, because not only would that make his life one hundred times easier, it would actually be fucking awesome if that turned out to be true.

Unfortunately, by the time the next Friday rolled around, he was no closer to figuring out the mystery of it all and since his only plan of action was Louis’s whole “confession” plan, and he’d steadfastly decided that he wouldn’t be doing that, he had no leads and no way of finding out who it was.

“Why do you make me go on these runs with you?” Zayn whined, stepping out of his room and looking absolutely miserable to be wearing sneakers and about to do physical exercise.

“Because,” Niall said, grinning. “A, it’s good for you, you’ll thank me later, and b, I want to do this just about as much as you do, and I read somewhere that bringing a friend along to run with you is a better motivator.”

“Well, no offense, mate, not that you’re not my friend or anything, but I am feeling absolutely no motivation whatsoever,” Zayn said grumpily, following Niall to the stairwell. 

They’d only just made it down the stairs and outside into the afternoon sun when Zayn halted in his tracks, swearing under his breath.

“Shit, I think I forgot to lock my door,” he said, already turning on his heel and walking back to the dorm’s entrance. “Why don’t you stay out here and stretch or something? Whatever it is you athletes do.”  
 Niall stuck his tongue out at Zayn, who stuck his own out back, but nodded and stood outside, waiting for Zayn to come back out. He hadn’t moved from that one spot, to stretch or otherwise, and was carefully devising a workout playlist that consisted of a lot of his (but mostly Zayn’s) choice songs when Zayn reemerged from the dorm, only about three minutes later.

“Well, that was dumb. Had already locked it,” Zayn grunted.

“Well, at least you got some stairs in. Good for the glutes,” he replied, trying not to scowl at Louis’s voice in his head going, “Tiny, that, like two plums.”  
 “Fuck that, mate, I took the elevator,” Zayn snorted, falling in step beside Niall, who had started jogging.

~ ~ ~

“I hate you,” Zayn moaned, leaning his whole body against the cool walls of the elevator, face red and a little sweaty.

“No, you don’t,” Niall said smugly, though he was just as red and maybe even more sweaty. “Aren’t you proud you went out and worked out?”  
 “No,” Zayn snapped, though there was no malice behind it. “You owe me dinner. McDonald’s. With a milkshake.”

“Deal, bro,” Niall said, grinning because whether or not Zayn meant it as such, Niall would count it as a date. Or something. Spending time with Zayn with milkshakes was something.

He turned the corner from the elevator and stopped himself short when he saw the whiteboard. It had changed.

“I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside, I’ve got you.’’ Underneath the words was another picture of Niall, as a cartoon, floating over a field of flowers where the sun might be. He seemed to be giving off rays of sunshine. It was cute and sweet, one of the nicest things anyone had ever said, or written, about him.

But no matter how sweet it was, Niall couldn’t help the way his heart sank.

Because Zayn had been with him the whole time.   
 Zayn had an alibi.

~ ~ ~

“So it’s not Zayn,” Louis said, after Niall had told him that the picture had been changed sometime during his run with Zayn. “That doesn’t mean that you can’t be with him. Just tell him!”

“No.”

“Why not?” Louis whined, throwing himself onto Niall’s back and letting all his weight rest on him.

Niall didn’t say anything, just trying to shrug Louis off of his shoulders without any real conviction. If he was honest, he’d avoided thinking about the possibility that Zayn wasn’t the person ever since he’d had the idea about it. He hadn’t really thought of a backup plan. 

“Knock knock,” their door slid open and Zayn stuck his head in, a smile on his face that quickly fell when he saw the look on Niall’s. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” Louis cut in, before Niall could even open his mouth. “Niall’s just disappointed because the person he wanted to be flirting with him through his whiteboard isn’t.”  
 “Louis!” Niall cried,horrified.  
 “Oh, really?” Zayn said, face taking on a sympathetic expression that made Niall feel a little worse, if he was honest. “Who was it?”

“No one,” Niall gritted out, fixing Louis with a glare, whose mouth was already open as if to answer. The older of the two watched him for a moment before shutting his mouth and shrugging.

Zayn, however, didn’t seem convinced. He looked at the two boys sitting on the bed warily, eyebrows raised. “Really? You can’t tell me?”

“It’s not him, so it doesn’t really matter, you know?” Niall said, shrugging his shoulders, watching and waiting until Zayn did the same, nodding.

“Fair enough,” he said, and Niall couldn’t miss the twinge of hurt in his voice which, really, stop, he already felt shitty enough. “A-Anyway, I came here to ask you guys if you wanted to come to dinner with Li, Haz, and I.”

“Well, whoever it was that it didn’t turn out to be,” Zayn said, when the five of them were sitting in their usual booth at the diner in town. Niall turned to him, eyebrows raised and desperately hoping Zayn wasn’t going to bring it up again. “For what it’s worth, he’s an idiot. You’re a catch, Nialler.” 

Then Zayn grinned at him, pulling on Niall’s heart like there was a magnet yanking on it from right outside of his chest.

Niall really wished he liked Liam. He was straight, at least he knew where he stood with him.

~ ~ ~

Niall wouldn’t quite say that the lethal combination of the disappointment of finding out that Zayn wasn’t his secret “admirer” (he refused to acknowledge that it had reached the level of admiration yet, but “affectioner” wasn’t a word, so) and Zayn inadvertently calling himself stupid for not being that guy fucked him up, but suffice it to say that Niall was still somewhat sulking by the time he came back from class on Wednesday to find a new drawing on his board.

“You’re early,” he said as soon as he noticed it, speaking to no one in particular and immediately thankful that there was no one wandering the halls to hear him talking to no one.

When he stepped up closer to the door, he noticed another little doodle of Niall, this time in a green, white, and orange jersey and kicking a football up over his head, little, pink tongue sticking out in concentration. Above him were the words, “I could make you scream just like the Derby games do,” complete with a little winky face tacked onto the end.

The words put a little pink in his cheeks, leaving him biting his lip half from bashfulness and half from trying not to let himself cackle loudly in the middle of the hallway. 

It took him a second before he noticed the yellow sticky note that was stuck to the corner of his whiteboard, the words written on it penned in a scrawl he recognized from being on the board every week.

“Hi gorgeous,  
Sorry about breaking our little routine, but I just couldn’t wait until Friday. By the way, you look super fit in those jeans ;) See you on Friday! Much love.

Your secret artist/admirer”

Huh. Guess he had an admirer after all.

“Look, mate, even if it’s not Zayn, I think he’s worth looking into,” Louis said, sitting on Niall’s bed later and watching smirkingly as the blonde lad spun around in front of the mirror, trying to get a good look at his jeans. 

“And why’s that?” Niall said, staring at his arse in the mirror, which still didn’t seem all that impressive to him if he was honest. His arse, not the mirror.

“Anyone who can bear to stand you shrieking at the telly whenever Derby plays and still wants to kiss your face is a keeper,” Louis said, grinning at the sour look Niall sent him. “And also, keep those jeans. Whoever your guy is seems to have a thing for leggy blondes.”

~ ~ ~

Niall loved Louis with all of his heart, he truly did. They’d grown up together, schemed together, laughed together, cried together, he’d often get texts from Jay asking him to tell Louis to call home because he seemed to have left his phone off. Louis had been the one to call into their high school with an admittedly atrocious Irish accent to pose as Niall’s father to get him out of detention. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for Louis and he knew the sentiment was returned.

But the second Niall walked into their dorm the following Friday, there wasn’t anything he wanted to do more than strangle Louis until he was purple in the face.

Just before he’d walked into the room, Niall had noticed that his graffiti artist had decided to make Wednesdays a permanent installment in their weekly routines, because there was a new drawing on his board that hadn’t been there when he’d left, replacing the cheeky Harry Potter joke that he’d found there on Wednesday (“I’ll be sure to Slyther-in if I can make your Huffle Puff.”)

This time, there was a picture of a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed head to toe in a suit accented with the colors of the Irish flag. He was holding a shield with rings of orange, green, and white, with a shamrock in the center of it. “CAPTAIN IRELAND” shouted back at him from above the figure. 

He snapped a quick photo of the new addition before pocketing his phone and pushing the door open, surprised to find Louis already in their room, sitting on his bed. But that fact immediately was cast to the wayside when Niall noticed the grin on Louis’s face. It was the absolute worst kind of grin Louis had, the one that always preceded something horrible happening, usually at Niall’s expense. It meant that Louis knew something that Niall didn’t, and it was purely evil. The most disturbing part about this smile, however, was that there was just a hint, a sparkle of joy, mirth, and sincerity twinkling in those crinkled eyes, which meant that whatever Louis was grinning about, he genuinely believed that it would be in Niall’s best interests. 

And Niall had even begun to open his mouth to ask when he suddenly knew. He didn’t know how, but he knew.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. “You know.”

Louis looked like he could explode, face actually turning red. “Know what?” he said, with the usual wobble his voice took on whenever he was lying and was too excited by the information to maintain the smoothness with which he usually told fibs. He knew Niall heard it and knew he knew that he was lying, but was electing to play dumb anyway.

“Tell me,” Niall snapped.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he was actually, proper, schoolgirl giggling now. 

“Louis!” Niall growled, gritting his teeth and hoping that for some reason Louis would pick up on how serious he was and tell him. “Tell me who it is.” He wasn’t sure whether he picked up on it or not, but regardless he didn’t seem to care, still refusing to divulge anything.

“I haven’t the foggiest of what that you’re referring to,” Louis said, clearing his throat to get his quivering voice under control and then fixing Niall with a challenging stare.

Niall watched him for a while, silent, calculating his next move. Louis was a little shit, and a stubborn one at that. He’d have to go higher.

“Fine,” he said, already inching towards their door. Two can play at that game. “I’m telling Zayn on you.” He was poised at the ready, fingers inches from the door’s handle and prepared to throw it open if Louis were to try and stop him. But to his surprise, he didn’t.

Whenever Louis was being a piece of shit, Niall always made a point to go to Zayn about it, because Zayn sided with him on everything and he was usually able to make Louis do what he wanted. Usually, the prospect made Louis give up, or at the very least brought on some heavy bribing to the effect of leaving the matter alone, but this time, Louis didn’t seem intimidated at all. In fact, it only seemed that his smirk grew wider.

“Sure, good idea,” Louis said, voice dripping in sickly sweet sarcasm. “Why don’t you go tell Zayn on me?”

“Uh, yeah,” Niall said, side-eyeing his roommate warily. “I’ll go do that.”

“Good,” Louis said, bouncing on his toes in almost childlike glee. “In fact, I’ll come with you. We can tell him together.”

Louis led the way down the hall, Niall a safe distance behind him, still a bit disturbed by Louis’s compliance. He was almost ready to call his own bluff and tell Louis to forget it when they were just in front of Zayn’s door, but Louis was already knocking on it.

“Oh, Zaynie!” he sing-songed, letting out a poorly suppressed cackle when said boy opened the door a few seconds later. Zayn appraised his friend before turning to Niall, frowning.

“What’s wrong with him?” he said.  
 “Oh, Zaynie,” Louis said again, clapping a hand on the darker boy’s shoulder. “Nialler here has something to tell you.”

Niall regathered himself, puffing his chest out defiantly. “Louis knows who’s been drawing on my whiteboard and won’t tell me!”

Zayn’s eyes nearly tripled in size and he seemed to pale a little bit. “You what?”

Louis’s face was almost tranquil with how smug it looked, like everything in the universe was perfectly aligned with him. “I did indeed see him,” he said, nodding. “My educational psych class was cancelled so I came back and he must’ve banked on me coming back later, because he was still there.” He tapped his chin, like he was reflecting on something. “Don’t believe he noticed me standing there though. I did do a cheeky, little U-turn and hide so he wouldn’t.”

“Well, why didn’t you show him you were there?” Zayn asked, voice stiffer than usual and he must’ve heard it, or at least noticed the smirk that Louis gave him because he cleared his throat and continued, “You know, confront him?”

“Oh, honestly, I was just in too much shock about who it was,” Louis said, placing a hand over his heart for drama. “By the time I’d collected my wits, he was already gone.” He turned to Niall. “Niall, you will never believe who it is.”

“That’s why you should tell me!” Niall whined.

“No!” Zayn yelled suddenly, making Niall jump and whip around to stare at him. Already his cheeks were flushing, like he hadn’t meant to jump in at all.

“What?! You’re siding with him?” Niall demanded, hurt crawling in around his chest. 

“No! I mean. I’m not siding with-“ the other boy stumbled over his words before sighing. “Yeah, kinda, but it’s not because-“

“Zayn, come on! This has been going on for months and suddenly one of you knows who it is and-“

“Not just one of us, actually,” Louis piped up, grinning. “Zayn knows as well.”

“What?!” Niall gasped, turning back to Zayn, who looked sheepish, then back to Louis. “Did you tell him?”

“No, he already knew, I think,” Louis said, grinning evilly and the more he did that, the less Niall felt like he was just joking around and more like he was being made fun of. But even worse than that was the feeling when he looked over at Zayn again to find him looking ashamed and angry at Louis, like he’d betrayed him.

“You knew?” he said, pulling Zayn’s attention back to him and noticing immediately how the guilt overpowered the anger on his face. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“It’s not- I didn’t want to, I just- I couldn’t,” Zayn said and Niall’s anger grew, making his chest tight with it.

“Why not?” he asked. “How long did you know?”

“Niall,” Louis stepped in, smile diminishing a little as he seemed to sense how upset his best mate was.   
“No, Louis, I need to know!” he said. “I want to know how long you’ve been keeping this from me. Did you know from the beginning?”

“Niall, I-“

“You did, didn’t you?” Niall said, shoulders falling as he curled in on himself, feeling more hurt now than anger. “And let me guess, you still can’t tell me.”

“Niall, I- It’s not fair to the other guy, you know?” Zayn said, grimacing like the words pained him. “He wants it to be a secret, Ni.”

“Hence secret admirer,” Louis pointed out.

“And he’s just waiting for the right moment to come out,” Zayn continued. “He’s, like, kinda shy, you know?”  
 And that made sense to Niall, it really did. That’s how secret admirers worked, right? In secret. It wasn’t like Niall would do any different if he were in Zayn’s position. He was just feeling rather stupid right now, with Zayn having known who it was the whole time and listening to him go on and on about who it might be and probably reporting back to him that Niall had no fucking clue. That, plus Zayn was helping another guy flirt with him, that’s how purely platonically interested in him he was; the combination of it all left Niall feeling just a little bit mortified.

After a moment, during which, it occurred to Niall, Zayn had probably been expecting him to say something, he spoke up again, “But trust me, Ni, if I could tell you who it was, I would. I really wish I could.”

And how fucking annoying was it that Niall was actually touched by that. Didn’t cheer him up in any way, but he was touched, regardless. Besides that, the only thing he felt was a compulsive need to be anywhere than where he was right now, where he was the only one clueless about something that didn’t really regard anyone else but him.

“Yeah, I understand,” Niall sighed. “But if you could say anything to him, just tell him that if there was any moment that he wanted to come out, let it be soon, before everyone else on the floor knows who it is but me.”

And with that he turned away, walking back down the hall to his room and shutting the door behind him.

~ ~ ~

When Niall felt down, his favorite thing to do (or, rather, the only thing he felt like doing) was to lie on his back on his bed, over the covers, eyes closed, hands folded over his stomach, and blare music. It worked when he was homesick and missed his mum, had worked in high school when he failed a test or he and his brother had a fight. The only downside to it at university was that most of his floormates knew by now the difference between his regularly blasted music and his sadness-induced blasted music and so everyone always knew when he was feeling down and everyone would end up asking him how he was when he finally emerged from his cave of melancholy.

The only person he didn’t mind demanding to know how he felt was Zayn, he was always so sweet about it and he tended to cling, constantly checking up on him and offering him piggybacks or hugs or something, it was so fucking endearing. But unfortunately, he was one of the reasons that Niall had ducked into his dorm room and turned his speakers up to their full volume, so he didn’t even have that to look forward to.

Somewhere over the roar of Adele, Niall registered the sound of his door opening and then closing again. Instead of acknowledging the intruder, he just kept his eyes closed and crooned, loudly, “Throw your soul through every open door,” hoping whoever it was got the message; that he was emotional and most likely unresponsive.

“Count your blessings to find what you look fo-or,” Harry continued and even though Niall still had his eyes shut, he knew he was smiling that dimply grin of his. Whenever Niall was in a mood and was trying to quell it with music, Harry’s biggest contribution was usually to sing along to the song until he decided to talk to him. Either Harry wasn’t aware what the music was for or just couldn’t resist belting out whatever was playing, Niall wasn’t quite sure which, but he suspected the latter. 

Niall felt his bed dip a little and he huffed internally because Louis might be the stubborn one, but Harry was the patient one and would hover for as long as he needed to.

“I assume Louis told you. About the admirer and everything,” Niall grumbled and he heard a soft chuckle. He smacked blindly around on his bed to find his speaker remote and turned the music down.

“Depends. What would make you feel better right now, the truth or the lie?” Harry asked and in response, Niall let out a long groan. Fucking Louis and his stupid inability to keep things from Harry ever. “I figured as much. Just thought I’d give you the option.”

“Great, now there’s three people who know and none of them is me,” he griped.

“Well, Liam came in and asked why you started doing your sad music thing, so,” Harry said. 

Niall let out another whine. “So fucking all of you know who it is?”

“Ni, you know that it probably wasn’t supposed to pan out this way,” Harry said, using his soothing, Mother Hen voice. “I think the rest of us were supposed to be surprised at the same time you were.”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, none of you seem too surprised,” Niall said flatly, finally opening his eyes but not taking them off of the ceiling. 

“That’s probably because we’re not,” Harry said and Niall had to at least admire his honesty. “The only surprise is that he kept it a secret this long.”

“And why is that?” Niall sighed.

“Can’t share that, I’m afraid, mate,” Harry said, sounding genuinely regretful, placing a comforting hand on Niall’s thigh. “Too revealing. But, if it’s any consolation, we’ve seen it coming for forever. You’re the only one who hasn’t seemed to have caught on.”

“Wow, consider me consoled,” he griped sarcastically. “I have no idea who it is.”

“Well, I have a feeling you’ll find out soon, Nialler,” Harry said. He patted Niall’s leg before his weight left the bed. “Sorry it ended up this way.”

“It’s okay,” Niall said after a moment. He lifted his head, watching as Harry made his way to the door. “Haz,” he called and the tall boy stopped, turning back to him. “Will I like who it is?”

Harry grinned widely. “I really, really think you will.”

Enough to get over Zayn? was the question lying on the tip of his tongue but he held it back and just watched as Harry opened his door and left. Niall picked up his remote and turned the music back up again. “Rolling in the dee-eep.”

~ ~ ~

Niall woke up the next morning with the mindset that most university students wake up with at one point or another; regretful and embarrassed of the night before. He actually music-moped over a random guy he didn’t even know yet and might not even end up liking all that much. Not to mention he got whiny and emotional over it in front of Zayn, who probably thought he was really frickin’ desperate to be begging him to tell him who it was. Awesome.

He rolled over and blearily checked the time on his alarm clock and groaned at the numbers that flashed back at him. It was still far too early on a Saturday for Zayn to be awake (hell, it was too early for him to be awake, but he knew that once he was up, there was no going back to sleep for him), so it wasn’t the optimal time to go over and apologize or explain himself or whatever, but it was the optimal time to avoid him.

With some mental goading from himself, Niall eventually tumbled out of bed and into the first, quasi-clean clothes he could find before grabbing his wallet and heading out. He glanced over at Louis’s bed and, unsurprisingly, it was empty. Louis slept in Harry’s room ninety-five percent of the time anyway, but Niall had a feeling that Louis definitely didn’t have to be talked into staying in a different room last night. 

“Hey, Niall,” the blonde turned away from locking his door to see Liam walking towards him from down the hall, waving. Niall waved back, mustering up the best smile he could. “Was actually just about to come see if you were up. Wanna grab breakfast?”

“Sure,” Niall said, falling into step with Liam as they walked to the stairs. They moved in silence for a few moments before Liam spoke up, breaking the quiet.

“You know, I’m with you, mate,” he said glancing down at Niall and shrugging when he met his eyes. “I mean, I’d be just as over it as you are.” He didn’t specify what he was talking about, but both of them knew he didn’t need to.

“I’m not over it,” Niall said, then balked at his own words. “I mean, I don’t really care if it keeps going on, it’s just-“

“I get it,” Liam said. “Secrets stop being fun when you’re the only one on the outside. To be honest, I kinda wish Louis hadn’t told me, out of fairness to you. The last thing I want is to make anyone feel like that.”

Niall didn’t respond, but he sighed heavily through his nose.

Why, oh, why couldn’t he have liked Liam?

~ ~ ~

When he was finishing up breakfast with Liam, Niall was in considerably better spirits. He knew he was going to have to talk to Zayn and Louis at some point today, but Liam assured him that it wouldn’t be as bad as Niall is convinced it’s going to be. He was sure it wasn’t, the whole ordeal wasn’t really a huge deal, but he had blasted his sad music over it, so he’d obviously made a bigger issue out of it than it really was, but. Whatever, teenagers tended to be overly dramatic, right?

Across the table from him, Liam was in the middle of explaining something for his lawyer class that Niall didn’t understand a lick of when his phone went off. He picked it up and checked it while Niall polished off the last of his chocolate milk. He raised his eyebrow at him when Liam smirked at whatever was on the screen.

“Who’s ‘at?” Niall asked through a bite of his apple when Liam started typing a reply.

“Oh, just me mum,” he replied, still not looking up. “But I actually do have a quiz that I have to submit online by tonight, so can we…?” he gestured back out towards the door of the dining hall and Niall nodded, standing up and picking up his tray.

Liam was grinning stupidly the entire walk back to the dorm and even though Niall knew it was against his better judgement, he didn’t call him out on it. When they were back on their floor, Liam pointed in the direction of his room and said, “Well, I gotta go do the… thing. So. See ya. Have fun!” He paused. “With, you know… your Saturday.” And with that he turned around, speed-walking towards his room. 

By then, a feeling of dread was starting to seep into Niall’s gut as he walked back towards his room. Liam was a shitty liar, which would either make him a great or terrible lawyer. 

He was getting the notion that Liam had just taken him to breakfast as a distraction (which he would be a little annoyed about if he didn’t know Liam was absolutely going to do it again the next day to apologize.) By the time he was standing in front of his room, looking down at his dry erase board, he was sure that Liam had just taken him to breakfast as a distraction.

On the corner of the board was a bright green post-it note, drawing Niall’s eyes there first. He plucked the little paper off of the board and read the message, written in the usual bubble letters.  
 “Hello handsome,  
When I started this whole thing, it was just supposed to be a one time thing. I wanted to draw that little picture and make you smile. There wasn’t supposed to be any secret or any wild goose chase, but I found that I liked making you smile this way so much that I didn’t want to stop. It was wonderful, watching something so little bring such joy to your face. As you probably know by now, the whole thing spiraled out of control just a little bit. But I want you to know that I never did any of this to do anything but make you happy. I guess my point is that I just want to make you smile. Is that okay?”

Niall tried to gulp down his throbbing heart, flipping the paper over to make sure there wasn’t anything else. When he decided there wasn’t, he cast his gaze back down on the whiteboard.

The words were written in beautiful calligraphy, with long, curling strokes in bright colors. 

“Turn around.”

Niall swallowed, fingers suddenly shaking by his sides. He found himself wanted to stall the final reveal for as long as he could manage, for whatever reason, so he let his vision fall to the little doodle underneath the message.

There were two little, cartoon people, one of which was Niall’s usual caricature, pink cheeks, blonde hair fading into brown, big, blue eyes. The other little drawing was of another boy with familiar features, black hair, brown eyes, and stubble, standing in front of the little Niall with what looked to be a sign in his hand. The sign just had a tiny pink heart on it, with a question mark following behind it, but the cartoon Niall seemed to be surprised and delighted all the same, a tiny word bubble over his head had another little matching heart and an exclamation point.  
 He sort of didn’t want to stall anymore.  
 He steeled himself, taking a deep breath before turning around, fighting down the noise that was threatening to bubble up into his throat when he saw Zayn leaning against the wall behind him, looking sheepish but smiling. He was holding another whiteboard in his hands, which Niall noticed were marked with streaks of all different colors, the kinds of streaks that markers leave behind. On the whiteboard he was holding, there wasn’t much, just a pink heart and a question mark. 

Niall looked down at the board, then up at Zayn, then to his door, then back to Zayn again, who, all the while, was looking nervous but hopeful.   
 “You piece of shit,” he said, stalking towards Zayn, who laughed and let the board fall to his side so he could open his arms to let Niall in. The older boy folded his arms around him, resting his head on the blonde’s shoulder.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you who it was,” he said, the grin in his voice obvious in Niall’s ear. “The other guy would’ve never forgiven me.”

“Shut up,” Niall giggled, beaming even brighter when he felt Zayn press his temple against his own. “How did you even pull this off? That one day when we went running, you couldn’t have-“

“Remember when I went back inside?” he asked and Niall felt his mouth pop open.

“But you were only a gone a few minutes!”

“Speed drawing, love,” Zayn muttered, not seeing but probably feeling how Niall pinked at the endearment. “Those stupid exercises we do in class are good for something after all.”

Niall huffed, stepping back out of the hug and taking the board out of Zayn’s hand. He reached for one of the markers in the cup he kept next to the door. He nudged Zayn away when he tried to peek over his shoulder, smirking. When Zayn had conceded and stepped away to let him work, he erased the question mark and put an exclamation point in its place.

“You can look now,” he said, holding the board up in front of him and watching as Zayn turned around, took in the board, and smiled in a way that was so incredibly fond that Niall was sure his heart would crush the rest of his organs from growing so big.

“You’re dumb,” Niall said, locking with those bright, caramel eyes when they raised to his level. “You’re dumb and cute and I like you a whole lot.”

Zayn grinned at him, putting an arm around his shoulders and drawing him close, pressing a kiss to Niall’s flushed cheek.

“Ditto.”

~ ~ ~

“So it’s a pair of aliens?” Zayn said, sneaking up behind Niall and putting his arms around his lithe waist.

“No, fuck you, go away,” Niall grumbled, putting the finishing touches on the picture before capping the marker and tossing it back in its cup. He continued to pout but let himself lean back into the kiss Zayn offered him. “Hi.”

“Hello, babe,” Zayn replied. He turned back to the whiteboard and the picture Niall had drawn. “So what is it then?”

“Now, remember I’m not a hotshot, talented art major like some people,” Niall said. “But it’s supposed to be us.”

Zayn straightened up, looking over Niall’s shoulder and squinting at it. “Oh, I think I see it now.”

“Liar,” Niall said.  
 “No, really, look,” Zayn said, reaching over his boyfriend’s shoulder to point at the drawing. “Those are our lips, right? We’re kissing.”

Niall snorted. “You wish. Those are our hands. We’re holding hands.”

“Oh, really?” Zayn said and Niall suddenly felt warm fingers interlacing themselves with his own. “Look at that, we are. Now how about my idea?” He waggled his dark eyebrows at Niall and well, he never really could resist anyone who made him smile.


End file.
